Listen, look, just wait a minute, deep breath. Ok. We there? I got ya?
*BTW- complete tangent: Have you ever realized how much politicians say the word "Look." I listen to a lot of NPR, and I hear politicians speaking all the time, and I really have noticed lately that they start A LOT of their sentences with "Look." Is this some sort of politician secret code? Have you noticed this? If you haven't, you will now.
Look, before you're like... "Why in the world is Mike B. reviewing an Arby's?", ya gotta hear me out. This was a pretty excellent experience.
One of my friends had given me an Arby's gift card that he got from his work cause he said, and I quote "I'm never gonna use this." And I'll never say no to free food... unless it's... from a place that is rated below 3 stars on Yelp. Then I'm particularly worried about my safety. I've gotten food poisoning a few too many times in my life.
But yeah, I've been holding onto this Arby's gift card for a while and decided I'd finally spend it on a road trip to an AirBNB in Stephens City for the weekend.
Covid precautions: It's been my experience that a lot of fast food places aren't taking Covid precautions as seriously as would make me feel comfortable. Well, I can assure you, this one definitely was. They had plenty of signage, hand sanitizer, everyone was properly masked and gloved and the seating area was.. I believe it was blocked off. It was either blocked off or every other table was blocked off. I can't remember. But I remember everything about my visit, it was evident they were taking precautions.
So I order:
1. A Reuben
2. A roast beef jalapeno slider
3. A French Dip
4. Curly Fries
Yes... I wanted to have some leftovers, and I had a $25 giftcard to Arbys. When does this golden opportunity ever come around in your life?
I think my total was like 18 or 19 bucks. He tried to run the gift card on one machine and it didn't work. He then took it over to another machine and it wouldn't run on that one as well. So he gave me the entire meal for free. Bam! I still have a 25 dollar gift card to Arby's. I know... luckiest man on the planet? I think so.
But this is not why they got a 4 star rating. The gentleman that helped me was as pleasant as pleasant could be. Also that little jalapeno slider thing was freakin' delicious. I literally ate it on the way out, and was like... yo... Arbys... this is freakin' good. Like Chris Farley's portrayl of Cindy in the Gap Girls sketch, "These [sliders] are goooooooood."
Also, I asked the gentlemen for a good deal of ketchup for my fries, and the cashier literally reaches in and takes a fist full of ketchup packets, shows me and asks, "Is this enough?" I immediately laughed. He must have been holding like 25 ketchup packets. Needless to say... I am still using those ketchup packets 2 weeks after the trip. Yeah... I saved the catch up packets "Big whoop wanna fight about it."
The Reuben was good, and the French drip was pretty darn good.
Curly fries: you can't go wrong with some curly fries. Amongst the fry hierarchy, I'm pretty sure Curly Fries rate near the top of the stack. At least at the vassal level. Waffle fries might be the pinnacle for me, but I don't think I have enough space left to properly discuss the fry hierachy cause I spent a bit too many characters on my discussion of the word "look."
All in all, a wonderful worthwhile experience at this rural Virginia Arby's. It's clear that they take their job seriously and execute it with pride.
If I ever find myself in Stephens City Virginia again, I would not hesitate to stop by this Arbys, which with experience, puts most all other Arbys not to shame... but maybe to mild discomfort. read more